Naresh Bhandari, a Maoist CA member representing Jumla, is forlorn. After he won elections to the assembly, he hoped to help his constituents, perhaps as a minister.

But his hopes have been thwarted. Dilli Mahat, whom Bhandari beat in the CA elections, has superseded Bhandari to become Minister of Peace and Reconstruction, an office to which Bhandari must report. "It is sad and humiliating," he says.

Congress CA member Suprabha Ghimire, representing Kathmandu 4, beat UML vice chairman Bidya Bhandari. She became Minister of Defense. "It's a mockery of democracy," says Ghimire.

After TMLP's Ramchandra Kushbaha became Minister of Education, NC member Ajay Kumar Chaurasia, representing Parsa 3, received hundreds of phone calls from disaffected villagers. Chaurasia beat Kushbaha in CA elections by 5,000 votes.

After four sets of inductions, the Council of Ministers now holds 30 people. Yet, 10 of these are not CA members. And among the rest, only 11 were directly elected into the CA. The remaining nine, all of whom hold powerful portfolios, weren't elected either. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal himself lost CA elections in two localities, although he was finally nominated into the assembly.

All this comes under the auspices of the interim constitution, which doesn't bar non-CA members from becoming ministers. Political analysts urge revisions to the document.